Ginsburg made her return to the nation’s highest court on Friday, working from her chambers and participating in a private conference with other justices. She had been working from her Washington, D.C. home and participating in the Court’s caseload while recovering from surgery.

The court revealed in December that Ginsburg underwent a pulmonary lobectomy at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York after two nodules were discovered in the lower lobe of her left lung.

The discovery was made as she underwent testing after she fell and fractured several ribs in November. Ginsburg initially missed a non-argument session when justices took the bench for routine business.

A woman who has accused Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax of raping her while they were undergraduates at Duke University nearly two decades ago called Monday for the state’s general assembly to hold a public hearing into her allegations and those of another woman against the Democrat.

Meredith Watson wrote in a Washington Post opinion piece that she was "frustrated by calls for an investigation rather than a public hearing" into the allegations brought against Fairfax by her and Vanessa Tyson.

"Such ‘investigations’ are secret proceedings, out of the public eye, leaving victims vulnerable to selective leaks and smears. And we all know how such investigations end: with ‘inconclusive results,’" Watson wrote. "My privacy has already been violated, yet I am still willing to testify publicly under oath. Tyson has made the same offer. Our plea to the Virginia General Assembly to require the same of Fairfax has been met with inaction."

Watson has said that Fairfax raped her in 2000, but that she did not report it because of how Duke officials responded to her earlier claim that she was raped by basketball star Corey Maggette. An attorney for Watson has claimed that Fairfax was one of the people she told about the alleged assault by Maggette and that the future lieutenant governor "used this prior assault against Ms. Watson" when he allegedly raped her. The attorney, Nancy Erika Smith, claimed that Fairfax told Watson at a campus party after the alleged assault that "I knew that because of what happened to you last year, you’d be too afraid to say anything."

Last week, Fox News obtained Facebook messages from Watson in which she commented on Fairfax’s 2017 candidacy for Virginia lieutenant governor and told contacts about the alleged rape.

"I see you’ve been promoting Justin Fairfax on FB despite knowing he raped me, which is mind-blowing to me. Are you seriously voting for him today? #METOO,” she wrote to one contact on Election Day, 2017.

Tyson, an associate professor of politics at Scripps College in California, previously accused Fairfax of forcing her to perform oral sex on him during the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston. Fairfax, who was attending Columbia Law School, was working as a so-called "body man" for vice presidential nominee John Edwards.

Fairfax has said that the encounters with Watson and Tyson were consensual and suggested that both women’s accusations are part of a political smear campaign to prevent him from succeeding Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam if he’s forced to resign amid a racist photo scandal.

Watson wrote that she had refused to make her allegations "a partisan issue" or "a financial issue by suing for compensation. I have refused to make it a law-enforcement issue. Despite nearly 100 offers to be interviewed, I have refused to make my rape a media opportunity … My motivation was never for personal gain. And what have I gained? I have endured relentless scrutiny of my personal life and an unending, bitter flood of hurtful misinformation trumpeted by the media."

"Despite every attempt to shame me, I am not ashamed," Watson concluded. "It is Justin Fairfax who should be ashamed. It is the Virginia legislature that should be ashamed. And it is the media that should be ashamed.

"If we as a society continue to allow women who report rape to be abused, disparaged and tormented a second time, then shame on us all."

President Donald Trump, speaking in a major foreign policy address in Miami to members of the Venezuelan community, declared Monday that "a new day is coming in Latin America" and issued a stark assessment that "socialism is dying" across the world.

In a wide-ranging rebuke of socialism that seemed targeted as much at Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua as it was at congressional Democrats, Trump remarked: "We know that socialism is not about justice, it’s not about equality, it’s not about lifting up the poor — it’s about one thing only: power for the ruling class. And, the more power they get, the more they crave. They want to run health care, run transportation and finance, run energy, education, run everything. They want the power to decide who wins and who loses, who’s up and who’s down, what’s true and what’s false, and even who lives and who dies."

Before a supportive and raucous crowd at Florida International University in Miami Trump announced, flanked by large American and Venezuelan flags, "This will never happen to us. … America will never be a socialist country."

The president’s vow came as Democrats have proposed an evolving agenda of "Medicare-for-all," free college tuition, minimum wage increases and even guaranteed basic income.

"When Venezuela is free, and Cuba is free, and Nicaragua is free, this will become the first free hemisphere in all of human history," Trump said.

The address was the second time Trump publicly and forcefully has condemned what he has called "the horrors of socialism and communism" and "massive wealth confiscation" in recent weeks, following his similar vow during the State of the Union address that "America will never be a socialist country."

That remark, which left Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., stone-faced, came as part of a larger condemnation of disputed President Nicolas Maduro for "turning that nation from being the wealthiest in South America into a state of abject poverty and despair" through a mixture of "brutality" and "socialist policies."

Venezuelan boys holding cups of a grape-flavored drink, part of the free lunch that is given out daily at the "Divina Providencia" migrant shelter in La Parada, near Cucuta, Colombia, on the border with Venezuela, on Monday. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

On Monday, Trump hammered that theme repeatedly and called on Venezuela’s military to rise up and take on Maduro, who has blocked U.S. humanitarian aid shipments.

"We know the truth about socialism in Venzuela, in Cuba, in Nicaragua, and all around the world. Socialism promises prosperity, but it delivers poverty," Trump said. "Socialism promises unity, but it delivers hatred and it delivers division. Socialism promises a better future, but it always returns to the darkest chapters of the past. That never fails. It always happens. Socialism is a sad and discredited ideology rooted in a total ignorance of history and human nature, which is why socialism, eventually, must always give rise to tyranny — which it does. Socialists profess a love of diversity, but they always insist on absolute conformity."

As the crowd chanted "USA," Trump, who was joined by first lady Melania Trump, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and National Security Adviser John Bolton, asserted, "The people of Venezuela stand at the threshold of history — ready to reclaim their country and to reclaim their future. Not long ago, Venezuela was the wealthiest nation by far in South America. But, years of socialist rule have brought this once-thriving nation to the brink of ruin.

"The results have been catastrophic," Trump continued. "Almost 90 percent of Venezuelans now live in poverty. In 2018, hyperinflation in Venezuela exceeded one million percent. Crippling shortages of food and medicine plague the country. Socialism has so completely ravaged this great country that even the world’s largest reserves of oil are no longer enough to keep the lights on."

As the monthslong political crisis in Venezuela continued, Trump took multiple generalized shots at socialism that pointedly were not limited to the country’s borders.

"America will never be a socialist country."

— President Trump

"The days of socialism and communism are numbered not only in Venezuela, but in Nicaragua and Cuba as well," Trump said, as the crowd roared. "Do we love Cuba? Do we love Nicaragua? Great countries. Great potential."

Trump again declared that Guaido was the country’s rightful president amid what he called an unprecedented "humanitarian disaster." He also made a public case to Venezuela’s military, which could play a decisive role in the stalemate, to support Guaido’s government. The Venezuelan military largely has remained loyal to Maduro.

Free lunches prepped with lentils, a slice of bologna, rice and a piece of plantain ready to be served at a migrant shelter in La Parada, near Cucuta, Colombia, on the border with Venezuela, Monday. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Trump told the Venezuelan military that they "have a clear choice — work toward democracy for their future and the future of their families, or they will lose everything they have."

The Maduro-controlled military has blocked the U.S. from moving tons of humanitarian aid airlifted in recent days to the Colombian border with Venezuela. The aid shipments have been meant in part to emphasize the hyperinflation and shortages of food and medicine that are gripping Venezuela.

"Unfortunately, Dictator Maduro has blocked this life-saving aid from entering the country. He would rather see his people starve than give them aid, than help them," Trump said. "Millions of Venezuelans are starving and suffering while a small handful at the top of the Maduro regime plunder the regime into poverty and death. We know who they are and we know where they keep the billions of dollars they have stolen."

The aid is supposed to be moved into Venezuela on Feb. 23 by supporters of Guaido. But, Maduro has called the aid unnecessary and said it constituted an attempt to destabilize his government.

Trump delivered the remarks to a supportive audience at Florida International University in Miami. South Florida is home to more than 100,000 Venezuelans and Venezuelan-Americans, the largest concentration in the country. Trump has largely been spending the holiday weekend at his private club in West Palm Beach.

Critics said Maduro’s re-election last year was fraudulent, making his second term illegal.

On Sunday, Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio — whom Trump invoked in his Monday address — visited a border staging point for U.S. aid to Venezuela and warned soldiers loyal to Maduro that it would be a "crime against humanity" if they blocked entry of the goods being channeled through Maduro’s rivals.

An enthusiastic throng of Venezuelan migrants, some chanting "Rubio! Liberty," met the senator as he visited Cucuta and held a news conference in sight of a border bridge that has been flooded in recent months by people escaping the hardships of Venezuela’s hyperinflation and severe shortages of food and medicine.

While Russia, China, Turkey and a large number of Asian and African countries still back Maduro, Rubio dismissed them, saying in English: "The countries that support Maduro do not surprise us. All of them are corrupt and none of them is a democracy and many of them are owed billions of dollars that they want to get paid by the corrupt regime."

Notorious Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan defended Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., for implying on Twitter last week that the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC compensated lawmakers in exchange for supporting the Jewish state.

In remarks at the NOI’s annual Saviours’ Day celebration Sunday at Chicago’s United Center, Farrakhan condemned lawmakers who pressed Omar to apologize in the wake of her remarks.

"Sweetheart, don’t do that," Farrakhan said, addressing Omar. "Pardon me for calling you sweetheart, but you do have a sweet heart. You sure are using it to shake the government up, but you have nothing to apologize for."

Omar tweeted on Feb. 10 that congressional support of Israel was "all about the Benjamins, baby," a reference to a 1997 rap song by Puff Daddy. When Batya Ungar-Sargon, the opinion editor of The Forward newspaper, asked Omar who she thought "is paying American politicians to be pro-Israel," the congresswoman answered: "AIPAC!"

The tweets were met with backlash from members of both parties. President Trump called on Omar to "resign from Congress or … certainly resign from the [House] foreign affairs committee." The chairman of that committee, Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., said it was "shocking to hear a Member of Congress invoke the anti-Semitic trope of ‘Jewish money,’" while House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., called the comments "deeply disappointing and disturbing."

On Sunday, Farrakhan insisted that "Israel and AIPAC pays off senators and congressmen to do their bidding, so [Omar is] not lying. So if you’re not lying, stop laying down. You were sent there by the people to shake up that corrupt House. Shake it up!"

Farrakhan has a long history of anti-Semitic comments. Last year, he lost his verified status on Twitter after posting a video in which he asked: "I wonder, will you see the Satanic Jew and the Synagogue of Satan, which has many races in it because Satan has deceived the whole world?" Farrakhan has also said that he is not an anti-Semite, but rather "anti-termite," and led a "Death to Israel" chant during a visit to Iran in November.

Last month, Farrakhan posted a clip from a 2015 interview to Instagram in which he called for a separate nation-state for black Americans, saying: "Most of our people don’t want it here … God has something else for us."

A Democratic candidate who has apologized after once saying that giving money to Israel was worse than donating to the Ku Klux Klan is looking to win a seat in the Virginia state legislature on Tuesday.

Ibraheem Samirah, a dentist and Chicago native who bills himself as a “second-generation Palestinian refugee,” recently made headlines when he denounced what he called a “slander campaign” that exposed a series of old social media posts that were viewed as anti-Semitic and anti-Israel.

“This slander campaign is using five-year-old Facebook posts from my impassioned college days, posts that upon my reflection and with the blessing of time, I sincerely regret and apologize for,” Samirah said in a statement on Friday.

“I am so sorry that my ill-chosen words added to the pain of the Jewish community, and I seek your understanding and compassion as I prove to you our common humanity. Please do not let those who seek to divide us use these words out of context of time and place to accomplish their hateful goals.”

In addition to the remark about the Klan, Samirah has also said the late Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon would burn in hell. In another post, he charged Israeli teenagers were using Tinder to “cover up the murders in their names."

Samirah is running in a special election for a vacated seat in Virginia’s 86th district, a suburban area in Fairfax County. The conservative website Big League Politics first reported the story, which has been picked up by Israeli media.

Samirah’s apology hasn’t been accepted by critics who say he remains virulently anti-Israel. They note in particular that he has advocated on social media for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

BDS supports Palestinian rights and opposes Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. Israeli officials say the BDS movement is anti-Semitic.

Samirah’s opponent in the race is Gregg Nelson, an Air Force Veteran whose campaign took up the issue after the story of the past posts broke.

“There is never a place for any hateful speech whether it’s in politics or daily life. Dr. Samirah owes it to the voters of District 86 to address his statement that sending money to Israel is “worse” than sending money to the KKK. The people of the 86th District look forward to hearing his response,” said a statement from Nelson’s campaign manager, Chad Brown, before the apology.

Just hours apart on Monday, Democrats and Republicans highlighted the plight of Venezuelans, whose homeland continues to reel from political and economic chaos.

The focus on the deteriorating South American country and, significantly, Venezuelans who are in the U.S., is a nod to a community that increasingly is becoming an important voting bloc.

With President Donald Trump and other Republicans like Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida out front with tough rhetoric and policies aimed at weakening the socialist government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Democrats have been criticized for dragging their feet as anti-government protesters are jailed or even killed.

In a telephone press conference Monday, Florida congressional Democrats called on Trump to allow Venezuelans in the U.S. to be eligible for Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a renewable humanitarian program that spares foreign nationals from deportation and allows them to work here if they are from a country deemed unsafe to return. Congress created TPS in 1990.

Trump was delivering a speech in Miami on Monday afternoon at Florida International University about Venezuela’s spiraling condition under Maduro. The U.S. has recognized Juan Guaido, the head of Venezuela’s National Assembly, as president of Venezuela. Dozens of other countries have done so, as well, alleging that Maduro’s re-election last year was fraudulent and that other government-stacked institutions such as the supreme court have no legal authority.

Over the weekend, Rubio visited a border staging point for U.S. aid to Venezuela and warned soldiers loyal to Maduro that it will be a “crime against humanity” if they block entry of the goods that are being channeled through Maduro’s rivals.

Maduro’s policies have helped further drive Venezuela – once one of Latin America’s most stable democracies – into social, political and economic chaos. More than two million Venezuelans have left the country, and many more are expected to continue the exodus.

Florida has the largest Venezuelan community in the U.S. The community’s political activism for a change in Venezuela’s leadership, combined with the state’s importance in national elections, has put the exiles and their issues in the spotlight.

“The state of Florida is the home to thousands of Venezuelans, many are facing deportation to a country that has literally falling apart,” said Rep. Donna Shalala. “It’s very important that TPS be extended to that community. I have challenged the president not to come to South Florida without announcing the extension of TPS.

“We supported much of this administration for its political and economic sanctions,” Shalala said. “It is very important that we keep the Venezuelans that are here living in our community.”

She said Democrats would continue to push for TPS.

Rep. Ted Deutsch said Venezuela cannot absorb the return of the millions who had left.

“That we would send these hard-working people back to a country in crisis is outrageous,” Deutsch said. “Ten percent of the Venezuelan population has fled but this administration has denied entry for asylum to the United States and that’s not right, that’s not who we are as Americans, and I’m proud of my colleagues for assuring TPS for Venezuelans.”

Many Venezuelans in the U.S. have criticized some Democrats for expressing opposition to U.S. sanctions against Venezuela and opposition to efforts to get Maduro out of power.

At a congressional hearing on Venezuela last week, Rep. Eliot Engel, the Democratic chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, expressed opposition to suggestions by Trump about going into Venezuela militarily, as well as to sanctions on the state-run oil company, PDVSA, according to published reports.

“I appreciate the need to squeeze Maduro,” Engel said. “But the White House must think through the potential repercussions that these sanctions could have on the Venezuelan people if Maduro does not leave office in the coming weeks.”

Venezuelans in the U.S. have been applying for political asylum in growing numbers in recent years. But obtaining TPS status – which requires demonstrating a fear of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group – has become more difficult as the Trump administration vowed to tighten the program.

Trump has taken aim at TPS, moving to end it for immigrants from such countries as Nicaragua and El Salvador, among other places. Last year, a federal judge in California blocked the administration from ending TPS. The administration appealed the ruling.

By most accounts, Venezuela is a country in freefall. It has the highest murder rate in the world – 81 per 100,000 residents. Inflation has topped one million percent. Everything ranging from toilet paper to medicine is scarce.

And it’s becoming increasingly perilous for those in the country to criticize the government. In a pattern that took hold with the late president, Hugo Chavez, many prominent critics of the Maduro administration have been arrested and are languishing in jail.

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris appeared to be caught off guard Monday when she was asked about the latest developments in the alleged attack on "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett.

During an appearance at a bookstore in Concord, N.H., a female reporter asked the senator from California if she wanted to amend a tweet from Jan. 29, in which she said Smollett was the victim of "an attempted modern day lynching" and called the actor "one of the kindest, most gentle human beings I know."

"Which tweet? What tweet?" Harris asked. As the reporter specified the tweet in question, Harris appeared to look around for a campaign staffer before responding.

"OK, so, I will say this about that case," she said. "I think that the facts are still unfolding, and, um, I’m very, um, concerned about obviously, the initial, um, allegation that he made about what might have happened.

"And it’s something we should all take seriously whenever anyone, um, alleges that kind of behavior, but there should be an investigation," Harris added. "And I think that once the investigation has concluded then we can all comment, but I’m not going to comment until I know the outcome of the investigation."

On Sunday, Harris’ fellow senator and Democratic presidential candidate, Cory Booker, told reporters he would "withhold" judgment on the matter "until all the information actually comes out from on-the-record sources." Booker also referred to the alleged Jan. 29 attack on Smollett as "an attempted modern-day lynching" and pushed Congress to pass legislation making lynching a federal hate crime.

Smollett, who is black and openly gay, claimed he was assaulted by two men who yelled racist and anti-gay slurs– as well as the phrase "This is MAGA country!" — as Smollett was walking to his Chicago apartment. Chicago police arrested and questioned two Nigerian brothers in the alleged attack, but released them on Friday without charges. Investigators said they’ve requested a follow-up interview with Smollett, but the actor’s representatives said there have been no plans to meet with police for the time being.

The Chicago Police Department repeatedly has declined to confirm local media reports that the attack was staged.

Hillary Clinton took to Twitter on Monday to slam President Trump for declaring a national emergency along the United States southern border.

In her tweet, the former secretary of state said the “real national emergencies” were “Relentless gun violence. Children separated from their families at the border. Climate change” and “Americans dying for lack of health care.”

Clinton, who lost to Trump in the 2016 presidential race, has been one of his harshest critics since his election. On Instagram on Monday, she appeared to troll Trump by posting a photo of the three living former Democratic presidents – Jimmy Carter, Barack Obama and, her husband, Bill Clinton – as well former First Lady Michelle Obama alongside the message “Happy Presidents Day.”

Clinton’s national emergency tweet follows Trump declaring a national emergency Friday to shift billions of federal dollars earmarked for military construction to the border after lawmakers in both parties blocked his request for billions of dollars to fulfill his signature campaign pledge for a border wall.

Democrats are planning to introduce a resolution disapproving of the declaration once Congress returns to session and it is likely to pass both chambers. Several Republican senators are already indicating they would vote against Trump — though there do not yet appear to be enough votes to override a veto by the president.

White House senior adviser Stephen Miller told "Fox News Sunday" that "the president is going to protect his national emergency declaration." Asked if that meant Trump was ready to veto a resolution of disapproval, Miller added, "He’s going to protect his national emergency declaration, guaranteed."

Miller insisted that Congress granted the president wide berth under the National Emergencies Act to take action. But Trump’s declaration goes beyond previous emergencies in shifting money after Congress blocked his funding request for the wall, which will likely factor in legal challenges.

Trump aides acknowledge that Trump cannot meet his pledge to build the wall by the time voters decide whether to grant him another term next year, but insist his base will remain by his side as long as he is not perceived to have given up the fight on the barrier.

Harrison Smith takes over the War Room where he is joined by a plethora of guests. First, William Gheen comes on to discuss the Jussie Smollett case. Adrienna DiCioccio and Brad Chadford later join to discuss #48Dark on Twitter and Wednesday’s Twitter HQ protest. Then Peter Boykin comes on to talk about his MAGA hat assault and finally, Owen and Roger join the show to comment on Trump’s speech about Venezuela and the outrageous coup attempt by the Deep State via the 25th Amendment.

“This is the lie that’s going on right now,” Booker told Fox News in Nashua, N.H., as he campaigned in the first-in-the-nation primary state.

The New Jersey senator was asked about the costs of the Green New Deal, which is supported by New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other progressives and aims to implement a range of big-government programs while pursuing a level of "net-zero greenhouse gas emissions" — essentially, a total economic transformation toward clean energy that, among other points, includes building upgrades across the country.

The Wall Street Journal recently reported it cost nearly $2,000 per apartment for the New York City Housing Authority to switch to LED lighting, which lasts longer and consumes less energy than incandescent bulbs. Asked about that report, Booker said it’s possible to “revive your economy, and create a bold green future,” citing his experience as mayor of Newark, N.J.

The Green New Deal is a sweeping proposal designed to tackle income inequality and climate change at the same time. It’s modeled after President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal package of public works programs and projects created to help the economy during the Great Depression — but in many ways goes much further.

The plan itself aims to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from manufacturing and agriculture and dramatically expand energy sources to meet 100 percent of power demand through renewable sources. The proposal also calls for a job-guarantee program and universal health care, among other things.

Republican critics have vehemently pushed back against the proposal, pointing in part to the price tag – estimated to be about $7 trillion. Republicans have also decried the job guarantee idea, calling it a “deeply flawed policy” that would be detrimental to small businesses.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday warned members of Venezuela’s military who are helping President Nicolas Maduro to stay in power that they are risking their future and their lives and urged them to allow humanitarian aid into the country at an event in Miami. Rough Cut (no reporter narration).

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant has vowed to sign a "heartbeat" abortion bill that was passed by state legislators last Wednesday. Kentucky passed a similar bill a day later. And Texas state lawmakers are also pushing to advance a similar bill in the coming weeks or months.

As both sides of the abortion debate are preparing for the possibility — however remote — of Roe v. Wade being overturned, at least 10 states are currently considering or have passed "heartbeat bills," which prohibit an abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected, which can be as early as six weeks of gestation or as late as 12 weeks.

While it’s unclear whether the bills will withstand court challenges — similar proposals have been struck down by judges because of Roe v. Wade — lawmakers are pursuing them in case the 1973 Supreme Court ruling is reversed.

In Mississippi, Bryant trumpeted state lawmakers for passing a bill he hopes will be mirrored across the country.

"I’ve often said I want Mississippi to be the safest place for an unborn child in America," Bryant wrote on Twitter. "We will stand for life here in the Magnolia State and hope the rest of the nation follows."

Florida, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississipi, Missouri, Ohio, South Carolina and West Virginia are among the states that have either passed "heartbeat" legislation or are hoping to do so. This comes as states like New York, New Mexico, Maryland, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Virginia, among other Democratic-leaning states, are supporting bills that allow abortion up to the moment of birth.

The bills on both sides of the issue have become politically, and emotionally, charged.

In Kentucky, a pregnant woman, April Lanham, sat as a witness in support of the bill while the audience listened to her preborn child’s heartbeat via an electronic monitor.

April Lanham, center, undergoes a procedure in Frankfort, Ky., that allows the audience at a Kentucky legislative meeting to hear her unborn son’s heartbeat, Thursday, Feb. 14, 2019 in Frankfort, Ky. Her appearance came shortly before a Kentucky Senate committee advanced a bill that would ban most abortions in the state once a fetal heartbeat is detected. (Tom Latek/Kentucky Today via AP)

"That child in her womb is a living human being," State Sen. Matt Castlen, a sponsor of the bill, said. "And all living human beings have a right to life."

But critics say the bills will not hold up in court. In Arkansas, Iowa, and North Dakota, federal judges found similar bills "unconstitutional."

In Mississippi, while the "heartbeat" bill was being debated, Democratic State Sen. Derrick Simmons asked if it was worth the money to fight this bill in court, referencing the state spending $1.2 million over a 15-week abortion ban that a district judge found unconstitutional. His Republican colleague, State Sen. Michael Watson, responded: "What is a life worth?"

Ohio was the first state to introduce the so-called "heartbeat bill" in 2011, and after being revived last year was vetoed by then-Gov. John Kasich late in December. The current governor, Mike DeWine, has vowed to sign the legislation that is expected to pass in March. He said he believes it will be ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court.

The heartbeat bills prohibit abortion as early as six weeks. Roe v. Wade’s ruling allows abortions until 24 weeks, which the justices said is the "point of viability," when the fetus can survive outside of the womb.

Florida’s version redefines a fetus as an "unborn human being," would make it a third-degree felony to perform an abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected. Gov. Ron DeSantis has vowed he will sign the legislation if it passes this spring.

Anti-abortion advocates believe they have a better chance at the Supreme Court following President Trump’s appointment of Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.

Authorities in California are struggling to enforce a state law that permits officials to seize firearms from people with previous criminal convictions or mental health issues – running into staffing and budgetary issues that have contributed to a massive backlog of guns marked for confiscation.

The law, which was passed in 2013 following the shooting at Connecticut’s Sandy Hook elementary school and set aside $24 million for seizure programs, had a goal of confiscating around 20,000 guns over three years. But six years later, according to a San Francisco Chronicle report, there are still roughly 9,000 of those guns out there, with more being added to the list yearly.

While the state’s new governor, Gavin Newsom, has made gun control a priority of his new administration and has proposed a multi-million-dollar increase to hire more agents, the program reportedly has been hit by retention issues and a lack of experience among new agents.

When the law was first introduced in 2013, funding was available for about four-dozen temporary positions to supplement 42 Justice Department special agents. But retirements and transfers kept the total number to around 57 and the department was forced to return $6 million of its $24 million increase. An additional $5 million was made available in 2016, but officials in the state say they’ve still had problems with hiring.

Under California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, seven positions open over the last year have gone unfilled and last year agents were made to sign contracts guaranteeing they would stay on the force for at least two years.

“We get people straight out of college, with minimal law enforcement experience, and we have to train them for a year,” Alfredo Cardwood, president of the Justice Department agents union, told the Chronicle. “After we train them, they skip out and go work for the local D.A.s.”

Protesters in the U.S. on Monday took to the streets and sidewalks across the nation to decry President Donald Trump’s plan to use a national emergency to seize funds to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Activists in Washington, Chicago and dozens of other U.S. cities protested on Monday’s Presidents Day holiday against President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency to secure funding for a U.S.-Mexico border wall. Rough Cut (no reporter narration).

When the incident was first reported last month, Democratic presidential candidate Cory Booker called it "an attempted modern-day lynching." But on Sunday, Booker told reporters he is now withholding comment on the case “until all the information actually comes out from on-the-record sources.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Jan. 29 tweeted that the “racist, homophobic attack” against Smollett is “an affront to our humanity.” But over the weekend, Pelosi’s tweet had been deleted.

Smollett, who is black and openly gay, has claimed he was attacked by two masked men early on Jan. 29 as he walked to his Chicago apartment from a Subway restaurant. Smollett alleged the men shouted racial and anti-gay slurs at him.

Last week, Chicago police questioned two Nigerian brothers in the reported attack but released them Friday without charges. Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the pair had given officers information that had "shifted the trajectory of the investigation.” Local reports have cited sources saying the attack was a hoax, though the Chicago Police Department has not confirmed that.

"While we are not in a position to confirm, deny or comment on the validity of what’s been unofficially released, there are some developments in this investigation and detectives have some follow-ups to complete which include speaking to the individual who reported the incident, " Guglielmi said Sunday.

Smollett received an outpouring of support from politicians and celebs when he first went public about the alleged attack in January. Smollett has claimed at least one of the attackers said to him, "this is MAGA country," in reference to President Trump’s campaign slogan.

While some lawmakers are now backtracking, others have stayed mum as the narrative rapidly shifts. Donald Trump Jr., the president’s son, called out Democrats on Twitter who were outspoken initially about the case, but haven’t said anything since the new developments.

“I’m wondering if @KamalaHarris still wants #JusticeForJussie? Will she be as vocal about it now or has she moved on?” Trump Jr. tweeted.

Last month, Sen. Harris, like Booker, referred to the incident as “an attempted modern day lynching.”

“No one should have to fear for their life because of their sexuality or color of their skin,” the 2020 presidential candidate said. “We must confront this hate.”

Others, like New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, said last month, “There is no such thing as ‘racially charged.’ This attack was not ‘possibly’ homophobic. It was a racist and homophobic attack. If you don’t like what is happening to our country, then work to change it. It is no one’s job to water down or sugar-coat the rise of hate crimes.”

John Dickerson, the co-anchor of CBS This Morning, responded to Ocasio-Cortez on Sunday and asked, “Is there an update on this?”

Meanwhile, Smollett’s attorneys, Todd S. Pugh and Victor P. Henderson, are vehemently denying that the attack was a hoax.

"As a victim of a hate crime who has cooperated with the police investigation, Jussie Smollett is angered and devastated by recent reports that the perpetrators are individuals he is familiar with,” the lawyers said in a weekend statement. “He has now been further victimized by claims attributed to these alleged perpetrators that Jussie played a role in his own attack. Nothing is further from the truth and anyone claiming otherwise is lying."

The board could decide a winner or call for a new election at the end of the hearing, which is expected to last a minimum of two days. The political operative, Leslie McCrae Dowless, Jr., was hired by Harris’ campaign consultants.

The state has twice refused to declare Harris the winner, after hearing reports of irregularities just before the election in rural Bladen County, where Dowless lives.

One of the methods participants said Dowless used was to hire workers to collect absentee ballots from voters who received them, and then turn them over to him, according to an elections board investigation.

State election law prohibits anyone other than a guardian or close family member to handle mail-in ballots. Harris’ team said in a legal briefing submitted to the elections board last week the board should certify him the winner – no matter what Dowless did for the campaign.

"Technical irregularities —like ballot harvesting — do not provide enough reason to order a new election," the attorneys said. Amar Majmundar, the election board attorney, said “the number of disputed votes more than sufficiently” call the margin of Harris’ election-night lead “into question," according to Politico.

The elections board also is expected to hear about the unusual number of absentee ballots that voters requested but never returned. A Harvard University elections expert is expected to testify that absentee ballots in Bladen and neighboring Robeson counties disappeared at a rate 2.5 to three times higher than the rest of the congressional district or elsewhere in North Carolina.

Four of the five members on the board — composed of three Democrats and two Republicans — would need to agree a new election is necessary.

If that doesn’t happen, McCready’s lawyers said state officials should send their findings to the Democrat-dominated U.S. House and let it decide whether Harris should be seated — arguing the U.S. Constitution gives the House authority over the elections and qualifications of its members.

“Our focus since the start has been calling for this evidentiary hearing, making sure that the facts and the evidence are laid to bare and the people’s whose voices were stolen by the Mark Harris campaign have their voices heard,” said Aaron Simpson, McCready’s spokesman, according to Politico. “If the board does decide to call for another election we want to be ready for that.”

Politico added that the North Carolina GOP initially didn’t stand behind Harris, but now is expressing support.

The group said in a memo quoted by Politico: "the ‘evidence and lack thereof will result in the certification of Congressman-elect Mark Harris.’"

President Trump on Monday accused Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe of pursuing an “illegal and treasonous” plot against him, after McCabe detailed private DOJ discussions about secretly recording and potentially ousting the president.

The alleged discussions have been a subject of fierce debate – and conflicting accounts – for months. But McCabe revived the issue during promotional interviews for his forthcoming book, telling CBS News’ "60 Minutes" that Rosenstein was “absolutely serious” when he suggested recording Trump in the tumultuous days following James Comey’s firing as FBI director.

Trump seethed on Twitter over the comments, calling McCabe a liar before lashing out at top DOJ and FBI officials, including ousted Attorney General Jeff Sessions, for what he described as a “deranged” plan.

“He and Rod Rosenstein, who was hired by Jeff Sessions (another beauty), look like they were planning a very illegal act, and got caught … There is a lot of explaining to do to the millions of people who had just elected a president who they really like and who has done a great job for them with the Military, Vets, Economy and so much more. This was the illegal and treasonous ‘insurance policy’ in full action!” he tweeted.

“Insurance policy” is a reference to texts between former FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page discussing such a policy, without elaborating – the text was widely suspected of referring to aspects of the Russia collusion probe.

While Trump fumed at McCabe, the former FBI deputy director claimed he "never actually considered taking [Rosenstein] up on the offer." He said he did discuss the matter with the FBI’s then-general counsel, James A. Baker. Last fall, as reported by Fox News, Baker told lawmakers during a closed-door deposition that McCabe and Page came to Baker "contemporaneously" and told him details of the meeting where Rosenstein made the comments. Baker told congressional investigators he took the word of McCabe and Page "seriously."

McCabe told CBS News that "I think the general counsel had a heart attack" when he told him of Rosenstein’s plan.

"And when he got up off the floor, he said, ‘I, I, that’s a bridge too far. We’re not there yet,’" McCabe added. Days later, Rosenstein appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller as a special counsel to oversee the bureau’s investigation into allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials.

Rosenstein repeatedly has denied he "pursued or authorized recording the president" and also has denied McCabe’s suggestion that the deputy attorney general had broached the idea of invoking the Constitution’s 25th Amendment, which allows Cabinet members to seek the removal of a president if they conclude that he or she is mentally unfit. The Justice Department echoed both denials in a statement released last week, saying Rosenstein "was not in a position to consider invoking the 25th Amendment."

Yet McCabe said in the interview, "Rod raised the [25th Amendment] issue and discussed it with me in the context of thinking about how many other Cabinet officials might support such an effort.” He added that he believed Rosenstein was "counting votes or possible votes" to remove Trump from office.

Fox News reported Sunday that Baker, in his testimony to Congress, provided even more details about the alleged 25th Amendment discussions – saying two Cabinet officials were “ready to support” such an effort.

“I was being told by some combination of Andy McCabe and Lisa Page, that, in a conversation with the Deputy Attorney General, he had stated that he — this was what was related to me – that he had at least two members of the president’s Cabinet who were ready to support, I guess you would call it, an action under the 25th Amendment,” Baker testified.

Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara is still idolized around the world. But his fans might not be aware of just what their idol did and said. (Getty)

T-shirts featuring Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara have never really gone out of style. Rapper Jay-Z has worn the shirt, model Gisele Bundchen has posed in swimwear featuring Che’s face, and even Prince Harry was photographed in Che garb in his younger years.

Multiple Hollywood films glorify the Cuban revolutionary, transforming him over the decades into somewhat of a pop-culture fixture – whose face still symbolizes for many the fight against the supposed capitalist machine, at a time when socialism is picking up renewed popularity in America.

But Guevara’s fans might not be aware of just what their idol did and said. Here’s a look back at the history.

Guevara said he killed people without regard to guilt or innocence

In 1962, the official Cuban newspaper Revolución reported that Guevara said, “in times of excessive tension we cannot proceed weakly. At the Sierra Maestra, we executed many people by ﬁring squad without knowing if they were fully guilty. At times, the Revolution cannot stop to conduct much investigation; it has the obligation to triumph.”

In his own diaries, Guevara waxed poetic: “I see it printed in the night sky that I … howling like one possessed, will assault the barricades or the trenches, will take my bloodstained weapon and, consumed with fury, slaughter any enemy who falls into my hands.”

He later wrote in one of his diaries about how he shot a peasant who admitted leaking information to the enemy. “He gasped for a little while and was dead,” Guevara wrote. “To execute a human being is something ugly, but [also] exemplary.”

Thousands were killed by the Cuban regime, with many killings linked to Guevara.

“He was directly responsible for at least 124 killings,” Maria Werlau, author of the book “Che Guevara’s Forgotten Victims,” who has spent years documenting the specific people killed at Guevara’s orders, told Fox News.

His defenders say he did what was necessary for a revolution.

“Yes, my father killed – but revolutions are almost always violent,” Guevara’s daughter, who lives in Cuba, said in a speech in England in 2012.

Guevara created system that put gay people in labor camps

In Guevara’s diaries, he wrote of one man who, “apart from being homosexual and a first-rate bore, had been very nice to us.”

But Guevara’s diary quip also spilled into reality.

“The regime that Che Guevara co-founded is the only one in modern history in the Western Hemisphere to have herded gays into forced labor camps,” Humberto Fontova, author of “Exposing the Real Che Guevara,” told Fox News.

Guevara set up Cuba’s first forced labor camp for people viewed by the state as delinquents. One journalist who managed to see such camps reported that inmates worked 60 hours per week, guarded by men with guns, and were paid almost nothing.

Gay people were among many targeted groups. People who had other “decadent” capitalist cultural practices could also be targeted.

“You see all these rock n’ roll bands [praising Che] like Rage Against the Machine and Carlos Santana – folks, they are eulogizing the emblem of a regime that made it a criminal offense to listen their music!” Fontova said.

Guevara opposed a free press

In 1959, leftist journalist José Pardo Llada reported that Guevara told him: “We must eliminate all newspapers; we cannot make a revolution with free press. Newspapers are instruments of the oligarchy.”

Fontova says that was in line with Che’s actions.

“When Che Guevara first arrived in Havana, he moved into the biggest, most luxurious mansion in the city. A Cuban journalist, Antonio Llano Montes, wrote about it in 1959. Naturally, Che Guevara’s goons paid him a little visit,” Fontova noted.

Montes, recounting the incident from abroad in a 1984 book titled "La Dinastía," reported that Guevara’s men took him to Che, who then gave him an ominous show of signing 26 execution approvals in front of him. Montes reported that Guevara then threatened him, saying: "I can have you shot this very night, what do you think?"

Montes wrote that Guevara left it at the threat, however, and the journalist quickly fled the country.

Guevara made racist statements

In Che Guevara’s diary, he wrote of “the blacks” living in Caracas, Venezuela, calling them “those magnificent examples of the African race who have maintained their racial purity thanks to their lack of an affinity with bathing.”

Guevara went on to write: “the black is indolent and a dreamer; spending his meager wage on frivolity or drink; the European has a tradition of work and saving.”

Fontova says Guevara’s actions – in his revolution against the Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista – were worse than his remarks.

“Many of the people Che was sending to the firing squad were members of Batista’s army, and these disproportionately tended to be black and mulatto. Batista himself was mulatto.”

Batista had been considered by many Cubans to be a friend of Cuba’s black minority, and had elevated several to prominent posts in government.

Guevara also at times, however, called for more blacks to be represented in institutions and had black fighters under his command.

A messiah complex

Guevara’s diaries contain grandiose wording, casting himself as a savior absolving the sins of privilege with bloodshed.

Guevara wrote of a night where, talking to a fellow communist by a lamppost, a vision came to him offering clarity.

“I now knew… that when the great guiding spirit cleaves humanity into two antagonistic halves, I would be with the people,” he wrote.

“I see myself … the great equalizer of individual will, proclaiming the ultimate mea culpa [apology]. I feel my nostrils dilate, savoring the acrid smell of gunpowder and blood, the enemy’s death; I steel my body, ready to do battle, and prepare myself to be a sacred space within which the bestial howl of the triumphant proletariat can resound…” Guevara went on.

“His arrogance – that is one thing that everyone agrees on,” Fontova said.

The parable that “those who live by the sword, die by the sword” also applies to Guevara.

After helping to establish socialism in Cuba, Guevara traveled to other countries to launch more revolts. His last attempt was in Bolivia, where he surrendered to Bolivian soldiers after a battle and was then executed, without a trial, on orders from the Bolivian government.

David Brooks, the center-right political columnist at The New York Times, on Sunday said that he could never support a candidate who backs the Green New Deal because it would concentrate power in the “hands of the Washington elite” at a level not seen since WWII.

Brooks half-joked that today’s Democratic field appears to take the position "somewhere to the left of Che Guevara.”

He said Democrats have done a good job in distancing themselves from moderates who could be swayed from supporting Trump.

Brooks said that under the Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal, Washington "planners" would take over the energy business, take over the transportation business and take over health care.

"This is simply the government taking control of large swaths of the American economy, and that’s something I don’t think the government is capable of doing," he said.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced last week that the Senate will vote soon on the Green New Deal resolution. It calls for dramatic steps to virtually eliminate U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and has been mocked by critics as unrealistic and veering into socialism. Republicans almost universally oppose it.

President Trump slammed it as not much more than “a high school term paper.”

So far, most of the senators seeking the Democratic nomination for president back it, including Cory Booker of New Jersey, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Kamala Harris of California, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, who’s likely to enter the Democratic primary soon, is also a supporter.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, left, said Sunday that Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, right, was wrong to have claimed the collapse of the Amazon deal would free up $3 billion to fix the city’s subways and hire more teachers. (AP)

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio suggested on Sunday that critics of the potential Amazon campus New York City — such as Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — got the facts wrong over the money behind the tax breaks.

On Sunday morning, de Blasio responded in the affirmative when Chuck Todd of NBC News’ “Meet the Press” asked if the tax breaks offered to Amazon weren’t “money you had over here. And it was going over there.”

The Democratic mayor said: “And that $3 billion that would go back in tax incentives was only after we were getting the jobs and getting the revenue.”

“There’s no money — right,” de Blasio added.

Amazon had chosen the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens to build a $2.5 billion campus that could house 25,000 workers, in addition to new offices planned for northern Virginia.

“If we were willing to give away $3 billion for this deal, we could invest those $3 billion in our district ourselves, if we wanted to. We could hire out more teachers. We can fix our subways. We can put a lot of people to work for that money, if we wanted to,” Ocasio-Cortez said last week after the technology giant announced on Thursday that it had dropped plans to build the new headquarters in America’s largest city amid pressure from politicians and activists.

“I have no problem with my fellow progressives critiquing a deal or wanting more from Amazon — I wanted more from Amazon, too,” de Blasio said. “The bottom line is, this was an example of an abuse of corporate power. They had an agreement with the people of New York City.”

He added: “They said they wanted a partnership, but the minute there were criticisms, they walked away. What does that say to working people, that a company would leave them high and dry, simply because some people raised criticism?”

The city was eager to lure the company and its thousands of high-paying technology jobs, offering billions in tax incentives and lighting the Empire State Building in Amazon orange in November.

De Blasio and Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the $2.8 billion in tax breaks and subsidies they were offering Amazon would result in $27 billion in tax revenue. The governor and the mayor had argued that the project would spur economic growth that would pay for the $2.8 billion in state and city incentives many times over.

“We are disappointed to have reached this conclusion — we love New York,” the online giant from Seattle said in a blog post announcing its withdrawal.

Cuomo lashed out at fellow New York politicians over Amazon’s change of heart, saying the project would have helped diversify the city’s economy, cement its status as an emerging hub of technology and generate money for schools, housing and transit.

“A small group (of) politicians put their own narrow political interests above their community,” he said.

Fox News’ Andrew O’Reilly and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., reiterated his support for President Trump’s national emergency declaration at the southern border Sunday, telling CBS News’ "Face The Nation" that students in Kentucky would be better off if funds that might have gone toward the construction of a new middle school would go toward building a wall along the frontier.

White House officials said Friday that they plan to spend $8 billion on the wall — the nearly $1.4 billion Congress approved for new fences and barriers, plus more than $6 billion drawn from other funds. "Face The Nation" moderator Margaret Brennan suggested to Graham that $3.6 billion of that $6 billion could come from military construction, including "including construction of a middle school in Kentucky, housing for military families, improvements for bases like Camp Pendleton [in California] and Hanscom Air Force Base [in Massachusetts]."

"Well, the president will have to make a decision where to get the money," Graham responded. "Let’s just say for a moment that he took some money out of the military construction budget.

"I would say it’s better for the middle-school kids in Kentucky to have a secure border," the senator added. "We’ll get them the school they need. But right now we’ve got a national emergency on our hands. Opioid addiction is going through the roof in this country. Thousands of Americans died last year or dying this year because we can’t control the flow of drugs into this country and all of it’s coming across the border."

Graham also declined to say whether Congress should restrict the definition of a national emergency in order to act as more of a check on the executive branch.

"I think that every member of Congress has watched three presidents send troops to the border," he said, "Bush, Obama, now Trump. Not one of us have complained about deploying forces to the border to secure the border. It’s pretty hard for me to understand the legal difference between sending troops and having them build a barrier."

"Unfortunately, when it comes to Trump, the Congress is locked down and will not give him what we’ve given past presidents," Graham added. So, unfortunately, he’s got to do it on his own and I support his decision to go that route."

Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe said in an interview broadcast Sunday that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein "was not joking" when he suggested secretly recording President Donald Trump in the Oval Office following the May 2017 dismissal of FBI Director James Comey.

McCabe, speaking to CBS News’ "60 Minutes," recounted a conversation soon after Comey’s firing about the ongoing Russia investigation in which he said Rosenstein told him: "I never get searched when I go into the White House. I could easily wear a recording device. They wouldn’t know it was there."

"Now, he was not joking," McCabe said of Rosenstein’s comments. "He was absolutely serious. And in fact, he brought it up in the next meeting we had."

McCabe told "60 Minutes" that he "never actually considered taking [Rosenstein] up on the offer," but said he did discuss the matter with the FBI’s then-general counsel, James A. Baker. Last fall, Baker told lawmakers during a closed-door deposition that McCabe and FBI lawyer Lisa Page came to Baker "contemporaneously" and told him details of the meeting where Rosenstein made the comments. Baker told congressional investigators he took the word of McCabe and Page "seriously."

McCabe told CBS News that "I think the general counsel had a heart attack" when he told him of Rosenstein’s plan.

"And when he got up off the floor, he said, ‘I, I, that’s a bridge too far. We’re not there yet,’" McCabe added. Days later, Rosenstein appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller as a special counsel to oversee the bureau’s investigation into allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials.

Rosenstein repeatedly has denied he "pursued or authorized recording the president" and also has denied McCabe’s suggestion that the deputy attorney general had broached the idea of invoking the Constitution’s 25th Amendment, which allows Cabinet members to seek the removal of a president if they conclude that he or she is mentally unfit. The Justice Department echoed both denials in a statement released last week, saying Rosenstein "was not in a position to consider invoking the 25th Amendment."

"Rod raised the [25th Amendment] issue and discussed it with me in the context of thinking about how many other cabinet officials might support such an effort," McCabe told interviewer Scott Pelley, adding that he believed Rosenstein was "counting votes or possible votes" to remove Trump from office.

"What seemed to be coursing through the mind of the deputy attorney general was getting rid of the president of the United States one way or another," Pelley suggested.

"I can’t confirm that," McCabe answered. "But what I can say is, the deputy attorney general was definitely very concerned about the president, about his capacity and about his intent at that point in time."

According to McCabe, Rosenstein was affected by what McCabe called an "incredibly turbulent, incredibly stressful" time after Comey’s firing. The former FBI deputy director claimed Trump had instructed Rosenstein to cite the Russia investigation in a memo Rosenstein wrote justifying Comey’s dismissal.

"[Trump was] saying things like, ‘Make sure you put Russia in your memo.’ That concerned Rod in the same way that it concerned me and the FBI investigators on the Russia case," said McCabe, who added that Rosenstein "explained to the president that he did not need Russia in his memo. And the president responded, ‘I understand that. I am asking you to put Russia in the memo anyway.’"

During his interview, McCabe criticized Trump for what he called an "unwillingness to learn the true state of affairs that he has to deal with every day." He cited an account by an anonymous FBI official who met with the president only to be met with "several unrelated diatribes by Trump."

"One of those was commenting on the recent missile launches by the government of North Korea," McCabe said. "And, essentially, the president said he did not believe that the North Koreans had the capability to hit us here with ballistic missiles in the United States. And he did not believe that because [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin had told him they did not. President Putin had told him that the North Koreans don’t actually have those missiles."

When intelligence officials allegedly told Trump that their information did not match what the Russian leader had told him, Trump allegedly said, "I don’t care. I believe Putin."

McCabe was dismissed from the FBI in March 2018 after the Justice Department’s internal watchdog concluded he approved leaking information to a Wall Street Journal reporter in order to cast himself in a positive light, then lied under oath about it. In the interview broadcast Sunday, McCabe denied intentionally misleading the DOJ’s internal investigators, saying: "There’s absolutely no reason for anyone and certainly not for me to misrepresent what happened … Did I ever intentionally mislead the people I spoke to? I did not. I had no reason to. And I did not."

He added, "I believe I was fired because I opened a case against the president of the United States."

In the White House response to McCabe’s claims, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders noted that "Andrew McCabe was fired in total disgrace from the FBI because he lied to investigators on multiple occasions, including under oath. His selfish and destructive agenda drove him to open a completely baseless investigation into the President. His actions were so shameful that he was referred to federal prosecutors.

"Andrew McCabe has no credibility and is an embarrassment to the men and women of the FBI and our great country."

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